


Buffy Drabbles

by fluffernutter8



Category: Angel: the Series, Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Genre: F/F, F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2009-02-22
Updated: 2013-02-03
Packaged: 2017-11-26 04:11:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 82
Words: 8,283
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/646410
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fluffernutter8/pseuds/fluffernutter8
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A series of drabbles about characters and situations from both Buffy and Angel written for the livejournal community Open on Sunday.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Music of Pain

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt is jewel/jewelry.

Buffy had been fourteen just a short while ago, so she knew exactly what playing Jewel meant. She climbed the stairs as track 4 (Foolish Games) started.

"Dawnie?"

A moan was her only answer, which she took as an invitation to come in.

Dawn lay with her face in a pillow.

"What happened?" Buffy asked sympathetically.

"Charlie broke up with me!!" Her little sister sobbed.

As she made her way downstairs to get ice cream, Buffy wondered if her Ani DiFranco was too scratched. If so, she'd need a new one before Dawn reached the "all men are evil" stage.


	2. Weep Not for the Past

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt is lamp.

Once Angel had a lamb. It had been born so early that he hadn't thought it would survive. It did, until Angel's father had a craving for lamb stew.

Once Angel had a lamp. It had been custom-made, from Tiffany's. He had been so happy with the product that the artist had been spared...until they met in Barcelona.

Once Angel had a love. It had been passionate and painful, hopeful and hopeless. He was foolish enough to think it would last for a good while. It didn't.

Today Angel swigs his beer and holds on to nothing, not even life.

 


	3. No Fruit

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt is tag.

She is still doing this. She is 65 years old. She has been doing this for over half her life. Her marriage broke up over this. She got her first Social Security check six months ago. But she is still doing this.

She does not know why anymore. She had to look up the meaning of hope in the dictionary this morning. Her long-standing word of the day is futile.

She corners the vamp against the side of a mausoleum. Her stake sinks in so far that it penetrates the concrete.

“Tag,” she says woodenly. “You're it.”

She walks away.

 


	4. A Trip to the Mall

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt is tag.

"Please?!?!”

Angel pointed to the price tag: $40 for a “too cute to pass up”sweater. Buffy recognized “back in my day” face and rushed on.

“My birthday's coming, Angel. Won't you get this one thing for me?” She began to pout.

Angel knew he had lost the second she spotted the sweater. He held his poker face for another moment before he broke.

Buffy danced off to buy what they both knew was not her birthday present. Standing in the sunlight, Angel watched his fiancée. He would deny it until he died, but he loved Saturday shopping.


	5. Becoming

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt is key.
> 
> See the sequel/companion to this: [community.livejournal.com/open_on_sunday/2405235.html](http://community.livejournal.com/open_on_sunday/2405235.html)

  
The power came to her at a most inopportune time. She was turning the doorknob to get into the house and suddenly her twist had too much power and the knob was in her hand. It took her a moment to realize what had happened. Then it dawned: the old Slayer had died and the power had entered her.

She allowed herself an illogical, unSlayerlike moment before she went to find Mr. Zabuto. She quirked a tiny smile and threw away her key. There would be no need for it now. No one would dare break into the Slayer's house.


	6. Fault

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt is key.

“She died?”

Along with the realization that there was another living Slayer came a strange feeling. It took a moment to recognize it because of its foreignness. She had never felt guilt, not when seeing the bodies of those she failed to save or when looking at pictures of her stranger-parents. But now she felt guilty, because in her joy that she had been Chosen, Kendra had never stopped to consider that this blond girl with her strange name and her strange speech and her friends and her vampire kissing...this girl's death was the key to her power.


	7. Fever Dreams

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt is knight.

Buffy dreams of:

Willow with black hair. Willow kissing a blond woman.

Xander wearing a hard hat and then a tux.

Giles smoking in shirt sleeves then dressed, singing about leaving.

Mom with a gangly brunette girl in her lap.

A blond man (is that SPIKE?!) crying over definitely-not-her body

Angel with a knight's sword through his chest. Angel with his arms around the earthspan of her pregnant belly. Angel holding a baby. Angel with graying hair and laugh lines.

At the time she assumed they were fever dreams. Too many coincidences later, she starts to believe otherwise.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Takes place during Killed by Death with spoilers throughout the series.


	8. The General

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt is passion.

Alonna watched her brother plan an attack. She was around the corner because Gunn wouldn't let her help, but she could still hear clearly.

“Marcus, you come in with the truck.” Gunn's eyes were alight with passion as he explained what to do. He hadn't been the original leader of the group but not many people remembered Tonio anymore. Gunn had taken over shortly after his death and had led so effectively that people didn't recall that he was once just a junior vamp slayer.

“Let's get those bastards!” Gunn pounded his fist on the table as his crew cheered.


	9. First Sight

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt is cross.

Her blood dances under her skin. She smells like spring. She leaves imprints behind his eyelids, like looking at the sun. He wonders if she knows.

He remembers her first fight, so fledgling clumsy that he was afraid for her life. He cannot take that worry again. He _needs_ to protect her. Unfortunately, he cannot always be there.

Calling the jewelry store a revelation is a strange Christian pun. But that is indeed what he thinks as he buys their simplest silver cross. Later he takes it out and burns his palms, praying that she will be safe.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> BTVS pre-series/ Welcome to the Hellmouth.


	10. Worst Nightmare

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt is cross.

Kate’s father never told her fairy tales. Instead, he taught her to trust her instincts and the instincts have always said that there’s something weird about Angel. But she ignored them.

They’re impossible to ignore now, as his face turns monstrously hideous. Her radio is squawking her name, but she is too busy trying to remember. She’s seen him in the daytime…but he never came through the front door. His skin always seemed a little cool. Has he ever shied away from her cross?

Her hand closes on the cross now, her only weapon in the face of this madness.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> During the ATS S1 episode Somnambulist.


	11. To Know Him Was To Love Him

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt is eco.

Cordelia arrived at 7:45, bearing a grocery bag and a huge fake grin.

“Okay, Angel, I brought blood. And it's fresh. No clotting from the crooked butcher this time.”

“Cordelia...”

“And I got fresh coffee. It's even the PC kind- _not_ made by enslaved children in South America.”

“Cordelia-”

“And fruit too! See, bananas and apples and-look!!- peaches. And they're organic, so it's eco-friendly.”

“Cordelia-”

“Doyle always said these were a rip off-”

She froze in her manic activities. Angel touched her shoulder and she curved into him.

“I miss him, Angel.”

“I know. I miss him too.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ATS S1, between Hero and Parting Gifts


	12. Puzzle Pieces

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt is pan.

Their bodies match perfectly, but they soon discover that their habits don't:

He keeps a detailed calendar.

She ignores it.

They're both driers.

He requires sixteen fancy pots and pans.

She doesn't understand why.

They both want the left side of the bed.

But they manage to make it work:

He relaxes his anal scheduling practices.

They buy a dishwasher.

She lets him go to a buy one, get one free wok sale.

"I guess," Buffy giggles to Willow over the phone as she lies so intertwined with Angel that they're both on the left side, "Opposites really do attract."


	13. You'd Think She'd Have Learned

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt is pan.

“P-A-N. Pan. I win!”

“No, Buffy. That's seventeen points.”

“Pan?! Jesus, Slayer, you must have better letters than that.”

“Better letters? That rhymes!!”

“I blame you, Spike.”

“Me, Red?! _You_ planned _Scrabble_ as an activity for her  bachelorette party!”

“You decided to come here instead of going to the bachelor party. And you brought alcohol!”

“I thought maybe I could convince these lovely ladies to have some and there might be some nudity. Lord knows Peaches is too whipped to have strippers at his party.”

“HEY!”

“WHAT, BUFFY?!”

“I have a 'B' too. Now I can spell ban!”


	14. Cooking Class Required

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt is dash.

Blood gushed over Faith's potatoes as she cut her finger on the grater... _again._

“Bitch,” she snarled at the immaculate Food Network woman.

“If you're rushed in your Thanksgiving preparations, a food processor can be used,” the lady responded perkily.

Faith was already getting the blender (“they both grind things!”).

Moments later, mashed potatoes were becoming potato soup.

“How much is a dash of pepper?!” Faith yelled at her cookbook. She dumped in a sizable amount, stirred and prepared to taste.

After pouring it all out, she made a call.

“Angel? Get your ass down here and make me a goddamn turkey.”


	15. Mother Knew Best

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt is prosper.

Mommy used to whisper “if you love something, let it go.”

_I loved her and let her go._

Mommy used to say “the grass is always greener on the other side.”

_I hope it's emerald green over there._

Mommy used to promise “everything can be solved with warm milk.”

_Milk's clotted. I haven't been shopping lately._

Mommy used to scold “cheaters never prosper.”

_She didn't cheat death, so she must be prospering._

Mommy used to sigh “only the good die young.”

_I guess she was good, because she died so very young._

And I am left with only worthless cliches.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Circa The Gift.


	16. Crazy Random Happenstance

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt is descend.

Their reunion is nothing like he pictured. He always saw it in the sunlight, his humanity evident. Instead, they're in a random Wyoming mall as rain pours outside. He's waiting for the elevator she's exiting. She's initially too focused on her pretzel to notice him.

His first thought?

_She couldn't at least have been gracefully descending the stairs?_ Followed by: _There's mustard in the corner of her mouth._

His hand reaches to wipe it off and somehow they're coiled together and no matter how awful this story will be for their children, he is damn glad he needed new underwear.


	17. Seeking Solace

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt is ascent.

He's held off all day and he feels entitled to one moment where he can allow himself the faintest memory of happiness. With the surety of the truly addicted, he tells himself that he can stop any time. It is a lie and he recognizes this as his hand gets closer to that particular volume.

Angel does not like feeling as if he is out of control. So he denies himself for tonight. He reaches for the next book over, a different type of comfort.

“A song of ascents. In my trouble, I called to God, and He answered me.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N- The last quotation is biblical. Psalms, chapter 120, verse 1. I did the translation myself from the Hebrew, so apologies if it's inaccurate.
> 
> Also, I was asked what Angel's usual comfort is. Answer: picture of Buffy book.


	18. Finances

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt is sale.

Joyce sighed and massaged her temples. If she could convince Mrs. Gerber to buy the Chumash statuette she was considering, Buffy could have a dress for Spring Fling.

Joyce remembered when she and Hank were newlyweds, when clipping coupons and shopping only sales had felt new and novel. Now she finished her meticulous listing of the earnings and spendings of the Summers household and hid the papers in a folder marked “Taxes,” one that Buffy would surely never look in. Her daughter couldn't see this. Joyce needed to protect her from their situation. She needed Buffy to keep her innocence.


	19. Shopping Spree

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt is sale.

Angel was reading in bed when she got home.

“How was shopping?”

“Excellent!”

“What'd you get?”

Angel dutifully admired the myriad of clothes she'd somehow purchased in two hours.

She lifted the last bag slowly. “Angel, you love me, right?”

“Course,” he said easily. “Why? What's in there?”

She drew out a sheet set, immediately starting her spiel. “They're pure Egyptian cotton, one thousand thread count.”

“Buffy, these cost twelve hundred dollars!”

“But they were on SALE,” she said, wide-eyed. “You know, before my parents' divorce, they had sheets like this...”

Angel sighed. He knew when he was beat.


	20. Minion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt is league.

“Angel's slipping if he let you into the club,” Buffy chided the dust pile.

There was a snort. “You thought I was in league with that moron? I try to Turn more evolved creatures.”

She didn't turn. “So you've moved up to flatworms now?”

“I'm thinking of something a little higher.”

There was an unnerving deviousness in his voice. She tried to sound fearless. “It's not polite to play with your food.”

He had her caged against a crypt instantly. “I'd say you're a bit more than food, sweetheart.” He placed a deliberate kiss on her throat.

“I'll see you soon.”


	21. Mind the gaps

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt is cup.

She entered the same bathroom she had visited before she had found out that the grass wasn't sparklingly emerald on the other side. She made her hands into a cup and watched as the water trickled through the tiny gaps.

_My life is like that. No matter how tightly I hold on, it can just slip away._ The thought made her shudder. She splashed some water on her face and patted off. She smoothed her hair and turned to walk out, reassuring herself that she would be fine. She had a date waiting and no monster would intrude on that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Takes place after Prophecy Girl.


	22. Contraband

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt is cup.

“Amy, you know your dad's allergic to feathers.”

“Well he was never going to-”

“What all these cups for? Do witches have some kind of smoothie addiction?”

“They're actually chalices. They're used for-”

“Amy, this powder better not be what I think it is.”

“It's just some herbs, for spell casting.”

“Of course, 'spell casting.'”

“If you don't believe me, why are you looking through my stuff?”

“Well, all the books say that you should take an interest in your children's lives, to show that you care.”

“You heard that on Oprah, didn't you?”

“Go to your room, young lady!"


	23. Family Trees

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt is son.

Angel set up shop in Philadelphia and somehow formed a team. He swore that he wouldn't get close, that he wouldn't let their inevitable death destroy him. And still he had custom headstones made for the fallen.   
  
He kept a picture on his desk that on a Monday could make him long for death but on a Tuesday could make existing worthwhile. They had a nurse take after Aidan was born. Connor stood to Angel's right, his attention focused wholly on his newborn son. Angel did not mind. It was enough that Connor had called him to see his grandson.


	24. Silent Night

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt was a Franz Ferdinand song.

He was going to die tonight. There was no way that he could have played death for so long and not sensed it. Still, it had never seemed so peaceful. His imaginings had never quite gotten to the part where he died of old age.  
He climbed upstairs, wondering when his joints had gotten so stiff, when he had stopped being able to piggyback his grandchildren. He breathed in, profoundly grateful for his life.

  
His wife rolled towards him as he got into bed. He kissed her softly in the darkness, then spoke quietly.“See you on the other side."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My specific prompt was the line "Wonder how I came to feel as fragile as a broken bone" from the Franz Ferdinand song "Swallow, Smile".


	25. Wedding Dreams

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt is clock.

The sun is shining. The sky is pure ocean blue. It is the perfect day for a wedding.  
  
Buffy walks down, looking angelic. This is the day she will marry the man she loves.  
  
He turns and she loses her breath. _Gavin_. In five minutes, she will be Mrs. Buffy Rossdale.  
  
The violin reaches a crescendo that sounds like annoying, long beeps. She told her mother classical was a bad idea. The minister opens his mouth…and out comes beeping!   
  
Buffy's alarm clock flew at the wall and smashed. She sat up and sighed. There went that cute new skirt.


	26. Star Gazing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt is moon.

Spike was in this exact Brazilian field nearly a century ago. The surroundings have changed, but the field itself hasn't.

You can't really see the stars anymore in most places. He stays focused on the sky so he won't see the lights of the nearest city in the distance. He likes it best out here, where the lack of light pollution lets the sky get absolutely black.

“See it, ducks?” He traces the points of Leo for Drusilla.

“I like the big, bright one right above us,” she tells him dreamily.

“That's the moon, luv.”

“It's pretty.”

“Yeah, it is.”


	27. Early Romance

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt is left or leaves.

“The panda eats, shoots and leaves. Get it?!” Xander laughed, clicking his little boy heels on the sidewalk.

Willow barely looked up from the enormous book in her lap. “Uh huh. Funny.”

“You weren't even listening,” Xander pouted. “I'm your boyfriend. You have to pay attention to me!”

“I am,” Willow told him, still engrossed in volume “E”of the World Book Encyclopedia.

A car beeped and Willow finally looked up.

“That's my mom. I'll see you.”

As Willow bookmarked her book, Xander reached into her bag and grabbed her brand new Archaeologist Barbie. 

He waved innocently. “Okay, see you."


	28. Motivation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt is left or leaves.

No one knows the whole reason that Angel started on his mission. They don't know that of all the horrible things he's done, leaving the residents of the Hyperion to be devoured by the Thesulac still weighs as one of the heaviest burdens on his soul. He remembers the choice: to stay, to help the helpless, or to abandon them. He is still ashamed by his decision.

He sees his new choice in Cordelia's pleading eyes and he know that he needs to help the people of LA, even if they're the not the exact ones he abandoned in 1952.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Based on Are You Now or Have You Ever Been.


	29. Alone

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt is echo.

It happened so abruptly that Angel fell down. He had been leaning against Spike as they fought some nasty demons and then Spike was _gone_ and Illyria and Gunn and the demons, and his heart was beating. He gagged on his knees because he had animal blood in his gut where he now needed human food to be healthy. But he didn't want to be healthy or human, not when the price was the last of his family.  
  
“DAMN YOU!” The words echoed around the alley, boomeranging back. As they hit him, he flattened onto the ground with a groan.


	30. Asylum

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt is echo.

Her heels made little clicking echoes on the floor as she walked down the hall. She knocked on the door to 217 and let herself in.   
  
As always, he was looking out the window. She sat beside him.  
  
The doctors had told her that he spoke politely when they brought him meals, but he had never said a word to her.  
  
“Thanks for getting me insurance.”  
  
She was surprised, but not. She looked at him, shrunken in the bed.  
  
“No problem.” They were quiet.   
  
She touched his hand and turned to leave.That was it. She wouldn't be coming back.


	31. Announcement

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt is echo.

As Dawn walked up to Angel's cabin, she regretted volunteering for this. She didn't know what to say.  
  
A pretty brunette answered her knock. Suddenly words weren't a problem.  
  
“He doesn't love you!” She was red-faced, shrieking.  
  
“I'm just the cleaning lady,” the woman responded, remarkably calm.   
  
Angel walked over, looking like an old man. “Dawn,” he said. His voice was hoarse and sad.   
  
Words clanked and echoed in her mouth. She felt weak and shriveled. She fell against him.  
  
“She's dead, Angel,” she whimpered.   
  
“I know,” he told her, not touching her, but letting her lean on him.


	32. After

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt is echo.

As they stand by the graveside, Angel sees an echo, a specter of Buffy, eternally seventeen, lovely and laughing. It is not until the ceremony is over that he realizes that he's been saying her name over and over, some oddly religious mantra.  
  
 _Buffy, Buffy, Buffy. I was supposed to go first, Buffy. Why didn't you let me go first?_  
  
The truth is that she has saved him every time he needed saving, by thought or deed or existence. Now she's gone and he no longer wants to be saved. He wants to slip away. He thinks he will soon.


	33. Daddy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt is triple.

To Buffy, Giles is constant. Yes, he went to England for a while, but he stayed afterwards:  helping her set up Slayers International, walking her and Dawn down the aisle. He dressed up as Father Christmas every year. Buffy laughed every time.

She cries for three days when he dies. He's old by then. It doesn't hurt any less.

Hank Summers calls only after his triple coronary.

“I want to be your father again, if I can,” he says, trying for humility.

Buffy accepts his apology, hangs up and forgets about it. He doesn't matter. Her father is already gone.


	34. Sci-Fi Secret

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt is novice.

Every Friday night, Mr. Zabuto would meditate and retire early. He expected that Kendra was patrolling and then retiring herself.  
  
She wasn't.  
  
“This isn't wrong,” she told herself. The fact that her small TV and VCR were hidden beneath her cot said otherwise. She listened for Mr. Zabuto's snores before popping in the tape.  
  
The familiar theme started and she hastily turned down the volume. She watched, entranced, as Luke, barely older than she, became a novice Jedi knight.  
  
Kendra did not find out about episodes V and VI before her death. She did not live to see episode I.


	35. Youthful Antics

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt is expert.

“Are you sure you know what you're doing?” Willow squeaked.

“Course,” Xander replied confidently, surveying her long hair. “See how well Jesse's turned out? I'm practically an expert.”

Willow watched their friend play his video game while peering through the hair over his eyes. As he lost, he slammed his head against the pillow he had placed to protect his nearly bald head from the cold wall. He turned to her.

“It's okay, Will. It'll grow back. And maybe it'll make your mom notice you.”  
Willow felt the chilly kitchen scissors against her neck. _Goodbye, eight years of hard work._


	36. Palmistry

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt is line.

Angel held his son's tiny hand in his own, tracing the heart line, a long curve that showed a romantic, passionate nature. He smiled, moving to the long, wavy head line: a short attention span, but no shortage of intellect. He made a note to research ADD.  
  
Angel breathed as deeply as he could without disturbing the baby before examining the life line. It was long as well, forming a deep crescent around Connor's thumb.


	37. Curse of Fate

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt is cure.

It could happen so many ways. Demon hunting isn't exactly a safe extracurricular. Things could just get out of hand one night: a slipped knife, a dropped stake and a demon with big teeth.   
  
She won't tell anyone, but she's thought about taking things into her own hands. There have been nights (like Saturday when she had to close her eyes and stake a little-girl vamp) when she's come home and sat on her bed with her sharpest dagger and wondered how quickly all the blood would drain from her body. After all, that's the only cure for being a slayer.


	38. The General

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt is cure.

Buffy ponders as she sharpens her sword. They must be crazy for doing this. This is not like those musicals where everyone pulls together for the stunning final number. These are the very real lives of her very real classmates. Gracie Lane was supposed to go to Cornell. Wallace Anderson already had his stuff packed to move to Boston.  
  
Then again, Gracie and Wallace can't really continue with their college plans if they get eaten by the mayor. So really, this whole thing has to go down as planned. Kill or cure, right? Or maybe she means kill or be killed.


	39. Rendez-Vous

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt is S and 3.

He's thinking of calling Buffy, apologizing, telling her what he's doing now (as much as he can, anyway).  
  
“Finn to sector S3,” Sam orders over the radio, making him grin.  
  
Sam is already there when he arrives at S3, their code for the most secluded part of the base. He wonders how she gets sexy lingerie out here.  
  
“Victoria's Secret spree before I left,” she smirks. Off his shock: “You're so easy to read!”  
  
“Yeah? Read me now.”  
  
“I read kissing,” she giggles.  
  
He doesn't call. His life is great. He's sure hers is too.


	40. Glass

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt is origin.

She rocks. Back and forth.  
  
“What did this?” He paces, separated from her by glass. She could break it easily. She doesn’t. “Was it your parents? Being Called? Dying? Resurrection?” He gestures frantically as he lists the possible origins of her madness.  
  
She looks up at him, and he thinks -briefly- that she will say his name, break the glass and wonder why she is in a padded cell.   
  
Her eyes drop again.   
  
Her madness, he thinks, was cumulative, not from a singular event.   
  
“I thought you were unbreakable,” Giles whispers. “I thought you could take it.”   
  
She rocks. Back and forth.


	41. The Really Big Easy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt is holiday travel.

All the rooms in New Orleans were booked, so they freed one up.  
  
Drusilla stretched out onto the bed, her hair rippling over the edge. “It's thin Monday, Spike,” she giggled, then yawned. Crawling up the bed, she shoved the body resting there over and tucked herself under the covers.  
  
Spike patted the man who the coroner would later identify as Alan Morgan on the cheek. “Sorry about the disrespect, but holiday travel always tires her out.” He picked Alan up and propped him in a corner.  
  
“You can watch the parade from here. Happy Mardi Gras.”


	42. Light in the Darkness

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt is candle.

Preparation begins October 30th.  
  
There's a girl with braces three cells over. Through a combination of bribery and fake infirmary visits, the wax ball beneath Faith's bed grows.  
  
November 27th, her cell mate gets paroled. Faith prays that she isn't immediately replaced.  
  
God is listening. On November 30, Faith retires early. Alone in the corner of her cell, she rolls the wax around a torn shoelace. Hidden by her cot, she takes a match (nabbed from one of the smokers) and lights her makeshift candle.  
  
She sings Happy Birthday quietly. She doesn't miss birthday cake. She never had one anyway.


	43. Wander Alone, Far and Wide

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt is rover.

His family is dead. The pain is indescribable. He runs to Rome, taking her selfishly before disappearing again, hoping for forgiveness.  
  
He takes brooding global, rarely seeing anyone, often forgetting to eat although it's necessary now.  
  
One morning he wakes to Spike's voice in his head _(moping tosser)_ and decides to get out of bed.  
  
In Morocco on Dawn's tip, he approaches the slayer base nervously. It has been three years.  
  
Spying him from her window, her heart swells with _something_ : perhaps sorrow, perhaps happiness, definitely love. She turns towards her door, waiting for him, her roving man returning home.

  
_  
Young woman, share your fire with me  
My heart is cold, my soul is free  
I am a stranger in your land  
A wandering man  
_Sand, Einstuerzende Neubauten __  



	44. A Mother's Love

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt was under/ground/underground.

Joyce just watches as her baby girl disappears into the darkness, back straight, sword in hand. The door clanks shut behind her and it is like the ringing of a bell sounding her daughter's execution. Joyce doesn't know when this slayer thing happened. She wants to call Buffy back, to ground her, punish her, lock her in her room. She wants to be the mother again. But instead she limps to the cabinet and gets out the bottle, the one Hank had once joked would be their companion during Buffy's teenage years. He hadn't known how right he would be.


	45. Betrayal in Silence

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt is under/ground/underground.

Jenny hadn't thought Angel's absence would gape like this. As she watches Buffy hide teary, darting eyes, her mouth hurts from the secrets pulsing hotly against her lips.   
  
Rupert comes over, touches her wrist, permissible comfort in front of the students. She wants to pull her hand away so he won't feel her pulse beating my fault, my fault against his fingers. She wants to whisper to him that she's a liar, that under Jenny Calendar hides Janna Kalderash. She wants to know that he'll love her anyway. But she's unsure and pins her lips together, keeping the secrets in.


	46. Claustrophobia

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt is under/ground/underground.

“Faith, you okay?”  
  
No, she's not a-ogoddamn-kay.   
  
Her mom once had this freaky boyfriend. She remembers being nine, driving in her mom's clunker, clutching her life in a box.  
  
“He's got a house and some cash. He'll treat us good, he just...doesn't wanna see you.”  
  
That apparently meant her bedroom was the basement. Which might have been okay with lights. Living underground was for moles, not kids.  
  
“Faith?” Buffy calls from the tunnel's enterance.  
  
“Yeah.” She jogs past Buffy. Her mom's dead, she's three thousand miles from Boston and she can deal with her own demons.


	47. Sorrowful Mysteries

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt is under/ground/underground.

Her sister Asnath is dead. Mama said that it was sickness but Drusilla knows better and not only because she saw the maid scrubbing her hands raw trying to get all that blood out of the sheets. Fear lies under everything in the house. Her hand trembles even as she holds her rosary. She dreamed this. She doesn't understand why God is testing her. She needs to see the priest.  
  
In her haste she doesn't remember to tell Beulah not to invite anyone in. Unfortunately, her absentmindedness coincides with her secret admirer deciding that a more direct approach is required.


	48. Ungrateful and Not Dead

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt is under/ground/underground.

The beast catapulted toward him and he tried to think of an appropriate passage to recite. Eyes closed, he didn't see Angel flying toward him until the vampire tackled him to the ground.

“Thank you,” he said automatically. Angel barely nodded before throwing himself back into battle. Wesley stayed leaning against a crypt.

“You understand, of course.” Travers's voice holds politeness for his father laid over ridicule for Wesley himself. “Saving a vampire would be a complete breach of protocol.”

Wesley thinks of Angel, sicker than anyone he's ever seen, and swallows. “Of course, I understand.”


	49. Twelve Hour Shift

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt is service.

Usually she's emptiness in the shape of another hollow-eyed, down on her luck waitress, so the tears that still come occasionally startle her every time. She goes to the bathroom, turns deliberately away from the mirror, and waits them out. The tears blacken her face (she thinks every time is going to be the last so why should she pay for waterproof makeup, but apparently she has no tear quota for this) and she cleans it off quickly before returning to work. After all, as her boss told her the first day, “No stopping in the service industry, Anne.”


	50. Parental Support

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt is service.

His dad was always the loudest drunk in the bar, buying rounds that he couldn't afford for the whole place, so it's odd that the service is so quiet: only the priest and Lindsey (and one of his sisters, but she leaves so quickly he doesn't know why she bothered coming).

The creditors took everything, leaving Conrad McDonald to be buried a pauper before his son stepped in. Seeing the expensive stone in the practically by-appointment-only cemetery gives Lindsey a pleasantly warm feeling. It's the realization of his dreams.

He smirks downward mockingly. “Thanks for getting me here, Dad.”


	51. Some Risky Showing of Business

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt is rock.

He'd laughed to find that the watcher had this album before a plan had begun forming.

He checked the house once more before putting the record on and going up a couple of steps. Giles would definitely object to this, particularly to the kidnapping of his button-down and Watcher's Council Fencing Championship trophy. As the opening chords started, he slid to the floor.

When they hit the instrumental, he looked down at himself. _Oh, bollocks, I'm worse than the watcher._ But as the lyrics restarted, he shrugged and threw himself back in.

_Still like that old time rock and roll._..


	52. Free Speech

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt is election.

It's just a stupid town election, but Tara’s dad really wants a friend of his to win, so he takes her out of school, despite her English test.  
  
Tara can feel him listening from outside the voting booth and it makes her both suffocated and angry. Her hand presses the button for another, random candidate.   
  
When she comes out, she tries to act normally and it seems to fool him.  
  
"Sometimes even the wicked can be redeemed if they do good," he says.  
  
She nods and looks away, hoping she is accepted to UCS. She can’t live forever with just quiet rebellions.


	53. On the Brink

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt is return. Takes place around Graduation Day.

People didn't visit the Sunnydale Public Library much. Housewives cleared the shelves of Nora Roberts and John Grisham. The students preferred the school library.

So Ms. Thomas perked up when a favorite patron entered one boring June day.

“Just returning?” she asked when he did not go browsing as usual.

“Yeah. Figured I should get them back. You never know what'll happen.”

He'd always been odd, but never paranoid. “That's true.” She stamped the final book. “If that's all, Daniel...?”

He turned and then reconsidered. “Ms. Thomas, have you ever thought of taking a vacation?”


	54. Origins of the Messenger

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt is glee.

Harri's voice woke him, blaring from the answering machine.  
  
"It's called late-onset demonism and many people live perfectly happy lives..."  
  
She continued, but Doyle tuned her out. He wanted to get some aspirin but couldn't quite get himself off the floor.  
  
"Need some help?"  
  
He would have whirled, but the movement would have made his head explode. Still, his face automatically erupted into spikes. The naturalness made him cringe.  
  
"Brakkens. Not the prettiest demons."  
  
Usually the hallucinations were less calm-breaking-and-entering and more gleeful-killing-the-monster. Also they were typically better dressed.  
  
"Who're you?" The question mushed from his mouth.  
  
"They call me Whistler. And I've got something for you to do."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I tweaked the implied Doyle past (that he gets a vision and presto! He's now a messenger for the Powers) a smidgy bit. Because I liked it better this way.


	55. Frequent Flyers

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt is marathon.

For her thirtieth birthday, they go to Kenya. It feels hot and ancient and homey like the womb.  
  
Four years later, it's Greece. Angel carries Brigid in a baby backpack as they hike the ruins in Delphi and Marathon to watch the sunrise.  
  
On their twelfth anniversary, Buffy takes him to Ireland. They sit by Angel's neighbors' graves. He cries into her shoulder. As they pack, he hums for the first time she can remember.  
  
She returns years later, Angel's casket in the plane's belly. This isn't a trip where he can fly back when he misses her, but it's alright. She'll join him, by and by.  
  


_"What's the difference between a trip and a journey?"  
"My love, when we get there, you'll understand."_


	56. The Skies Are Gray

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt is play.

"Come outside."  
  
"It's cold!"  
  
"If it were warm, it would melt. Come play!"  
  
"Can't we play in bed instead?"  
  
Xander pulled Anya into the snow. "After we make snow angels and a snow family and a snow fort..."  
  
He wakes up alone, the night chilly for mid-May. This is the time the dreams come, when he should be putting flowers on her grave. Instead, all he has are these dreams, the ones of a future they'll never have.  
  
He rolls over, turns on the tv. It's midnight junk, but he doesn't care. It's been nine years. He still keeps a list of infomercial crap she'd like.


	57. Star Quality

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt is direct.

Cordelia answered the door sweating.  
  
"Angel's fighting those wind-somethings, said I should protect you," Doyle lied.  
  
Cordy unpaused Cindy Crawford, scoffing. "Sure."  
  
Doyle watched for a minute before commenting, "You look great, you don't need this."  
  
"I know," Cordy huffed. "But I'm not getting parts, so I need to look greater."  
  
Doyle winced. "Maybe your talent...lies behind the camera."  
  
"I'm not going to _direct_." She turned off the video, fuming. "Do people say 'How gorgeous was the _director_?' God, maybe you should exercise the brain in your head for once."  
  
He could have yelled back. Instead he held out his hand. "Want help running your lines?"


	58. Caution

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt is break.

Fred didn't notice it at first, but the Hyperion was quiet these days. Usually she and Wesley would at least trade ideas, but lately he barely spoke.

She was walking across the lobby, nose nearly touching her book, when she tripped. And felt Wesley catch her. He brushed her only long enough to prop her up, before he went back to the desk and wouldn't look at her.

"Wesley?" She leaned toward him. He moved away. "You won't break me, you know."

He didn't answer. She stepped back, raising her book again, when he spoke. She could barely hear him.

"But I almost did."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Takes place after the ATS episode Billy.


	59. Non-bonding

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt is bridge.

Joyce always stayed up until her daughter was home. She was sitting in the kitchen, reading a paperback, when Buffy walked in.  
  
"How was the movie?" _The seventh time around._  
  
"Good," Buffy said, one foot already on the stairs. "Leo keeps getting cuter."  
  
"Leo..." Joyce tipped her head back nostalgically. "I remember I used to call-"  
  
"That's nice, Mom. Good night."  
  
Joyce sighed. She marked her page, made sure the kitchen was tidy and flipped off the light before heading upstairs herself. Maybe she would call her own mother in the morning. Hopefully an older woman would have some tips about bridging the generational gap.


	60. Head, Meet Sand

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt is bridge.

Joyce was always in bed when Buffy got home, but she was usually awake. A year ago, she would have been asleep before her daughter slipped out of the house and oblivious to the various stains and tears in her clothing.  
  
She liked that Buffy would share (some) information if asked, but there was a part of Joyce that wanted to return to the blindness that she had once unknowningly been a part of. And it was that part that argued for staying up with a bottle of gin or vodka- the ironically liquid bridge over the troubled waters of Buffy's adolescence


	61. Outlook from the Precipice

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt is bridge.

Joyce had always expected an average life and so far she had had one, all marriage, divorce, two kids, book club. She had steered her girls toward the same, normal path. Now she wondered if it was the right choice.   
  
Her body felt invaded. Even as the doctors talked about surgery and good odds, it was clear to her that she was not meant to retire to Florida and play bridge all day.  
  
Her life hadn't been completely average, but had been good, and she realized that her daughters' could be the same. Maybe not like everyone's, but still happy.


	62. Funhouse

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt is copy.

A week after Willow arrived in Mozambique, Rita was still shopping for supplies she " _needed_ " for training in Rome.  
  
Apparently a new mirror was necessary. Willow tagged along, reminding about the tiny rooms. She was ignored and sent to the corner to check out mirrors. The short one stretched her face. The round one made her consider dieting. The bronze one made her look like Oz.  
  
She waved. Mirror-her copied. She wiggled her nose. So did the reflection.  
  
"Hey, Rita-" she began, and then Oz stepped around the window.  
  
"Hey," he said.  
  
"Istanbul isn't 'til next month," she blurted.  
  
"Yeah. I thought maybe I'd come with."


	63. Free Willy

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt is trap.

“I don't see why I had to be on the bottom,” Xander complained in a whisper too loud for their current mission.  
  
“Because I'm lighter. You'd break my back,” Willow responded absently, rooting around in the cage. She finally trapped a squirming body in her hands just as Xander collapsed  
  
Standing, she stuck the gerbil in Xander's pocket. “Let's go before Mrs. Miles comes back.”  
  
He followed, wincing as Willy the gerbil bit his thigh. “You're lucky I love you, Will.”  
  
“ _Love_?!”  
  
“No one but a best friend would help you commit a gerbil-napping.”


	64. The Wolf Within

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt is trap.

It was the strongest night of the full moon. Tomorrow, Oz would gain some control and would probably lie down for a little, but tonight he paced around the cage, snarling and bashing against the bars.  
  
Willow looked up from her trig book after a particularly loud bang.  
  
“Oz, shh,” she admonished. He crashed again, louder.  
  
It was odd that Oz, the quietest human, became this monster. Watching him growl behind the bars, she wondered for the first time if the wolf was always in Oz, just controlled most of the time. She shivered and reapplied herself to trig.


	65. I Know How the Caged Bird Sings

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt is trap.

Tara's email address in high school was OcellEngabiat - 'Caged bird' in Catalan, the language of her mother's family. It felt like a secret message: “My voice is trapped inside me and it needs help getting out.”  
  
Unfortunately, she never gave her email out to anyone (although they probably wouldn't have understood it anyway).  
  
By college, she had switched over to a more unassuming TMclay, the address she gave Willow when they traded emails for Wicca group.  
  
But it was okay. Her hidden messages weren't necessary anymore. Her cage was open. All she needed to do was walk through.


	66. Careful of the Genie

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt is lantern.

Oz has noticed that drummers tend to be stupid. But he's a benefit of the doubt kind of guy, so maybe Steve will be different.  
  
He isn't.  
  
“Dude.” Steve looks victorious. “Check what I found in my attic. It's a lantern!”  
  
“Actually more of a lamp,” Oz corrects mildly. “Like Aladdin.”  
  
Steve's eyes light up. He starts rubbing the lamp, playing Zeppelin on the side. He hits chorus as smoke starts spewing.  
  
Oz starts to suspect they won't make it to Battle of the Bands. Then again, knowing Sunnydale, they probably won't be the only ones.


	67. Hoedown

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt is spin.

Being assigned to check out a demon infestation in Perdue, Alabama, was bad. When Xander found the flier, it got worse.

"You realize I'm never going into the field with you again, right?"

"Aw, you don't mean that. This is a beautiful southern tradition ripe for mocking. How can you resist taking part?"

"Spin your partner 'round-a-bout!" the caller shouted.

Xander swished Dawn into his arms, his eye twinkling. "And there is this."

Dawn smiled briefly. "Okay, maybe this is alright." She held up a threatening finger. "But if you even think it'll happen again, I'll be telling Buffy where your hands are right now."


	68. The Angels Do Not Answer

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt is scream.

The Mother is screaming. Drusilla thinks it sounds like bells.  
  
The small chapel where she kneels feels like the end of the world. She takes out her confirmation rosary.  
 _  
Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name_  
  
The convent is silent now, like the cemetery on the day she buried her parents.  
 _  
Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done_  
  
Footsteps echo down the hall. Run and catch, Drusilla thinks without panic.  
 __  
On earth as it is in heaven  
  
“None of us are going to heaven, sweet,” the devil says in her ear.  
  
Drusilla dies holding her rosary.


	69. Original Sin

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt is people.

Fred had always felt that people were good. A few bad ones here and there, but good for the most part. She had read Calvin for a religion course, and just couldn't understand how he could go on about the inherent evil of humans when the Starbucks man wrote a smiley face on her coffee cup or when a woman helped her pick up the books she had dropped.  
  
Now hearing that Professor Seidel, brilliant Professor Seidel, who had paid for that coffee, who had recommended those books, had sent her to hell...Now, feeling this anger, she isn't sure anymore.


	70. Special Education

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt is aid.

Gunn's cousin James was reading at four. Charlie was seven when his teacher asked to meet with his grandmother.  
  
"Charles isn't quite where we think he should be," the teacher said. She kept talking, about "visual aids" and "teaching assistants," but all Charlie heard was that he was dumb, and all he saw was his grandma's "we don't have the money" face.  
  
"We're gonna get you reading," Nana told him on the way home, and though it took months of late nights, by eight, Charlie was reading.  
  
Years later, when he fought vampires and rarely read, he worked to forget his Nana's face.


	71. Everyone's a Star

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt is star.

"You're paying for this," Cordelia grumbles, scrubbing at a bloodstain. "And I mean in a literal, cash money kind of way."  
  
"When we get the check," Angel soothes, flipping through a file.  
  
Cordy drops the towel. "Okay, I'm going to get friendly with industrial-strength bleach." Angel glances toward her as she turns to go. She looks defeated, despite their victory against the Laribee tonight.  
  
"Cordelia," Angel says softly. "You're...You know I think you're a star, right?"  
  
"Of course I am," Cordelia says, most popular girl confidence filling her voice, but Angel can see the smile slipping on to her face as she walks out.


	72. Infatuation

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt is strip.

"...and they told me that it would be four hundred dollars for them to send their guy out. So I told them that I didn't want their "guy," I wanted them to stop robbing the poor people of Los Angeles. Then I went next door and offered to make some brownies if the neighbors would help, and they laughed. At me! Best Smile, Sunnydale High 1999. How could they turn me down?!"  
  
Doyle stretched his shoulder a little before reaching to strip off another piece of wallpaper. He glanced at Cordelia, swiveling sullenly at the counter. "I have no idea, princess." 


	73. Cage

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt is strip.

"And he always waits until I leave to get undressed!"  
  
"You _want_ him to strip in front of you? Hello, wild Willow!"  
  
Willow wrung her hands, looking away from Buffy's grin.  
  
"Well, no, but...sheets! There are sheets, blocking sheets, well, mostly blocking, and- can't he just be a little less respectful?"  
  
Buffy leaned back and looked away. "Maybe when it comes to stuff like this, sex stuff, being respectful is better."  
  
"Sure, but I don't want my boyfriend thinking that I'm Saint Willow. I want to see some naked Oz!"  
  
"Will, I promise that when it's right, you'll see whether guitar gives Oz any interesting muscles."


	74. Evolution

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt is restore.

"...and Mr. McGovern got home safely. He says thank you."  
  
"Thanks, Cordelia."  
  
Watching Cordy grow over the past year has bolstered his faith. Every time he went to help someone who'd fallen into vice, he would return to find that she'd gotten Wesley's favorite pastries, or had turned down her music.  
  
She, callous queen of Sunnydale High, restored his daily faith in humanity.  
  
"Also, typing up the invoice chipped my nails, so I'm going to take the card and get them redone. Although, it might take a while, so I'm just going to take the rest of the day."  
  
Well, maybe that was too strong.


	75. The Beginning of a Beautiful Friendship?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt is rule one.

"Good patrol?"  
  
"Yeah." Buffy swung her feet, not meeting his eyes.  
  
"No extra activity after the Rites of Aganon?"  
  
"Nope, extra quiet." Giles stared at her until she cracked. "Okay, so maybe quietness occurred because I patrolled early...and then saw a movie."  
  
"Buffy-!"  
  
"Duty, responsibility, fun levels flatlining. I'll play the disappointed speech tape at home." The bell rang and she immediately grabbed her bag.  
  
"You're unusually eager to learn French today," Giles called as the doors swung shut behind her.  
  
He sighed, returning to his desk and recalling his first lesson at the Academy.  
  
 _Rule one: The Slayer will obey her Watcher_ _completely_ _._  
  
Giles massaged his eyes. "Bollocks."


	76. Not Exactly Westminster

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt is bright.

"Lovely sheen," the pet show judge said appreciatively, stroking Amy gently. Willow nodded, her eyes scanning the other animals, searching for the masquerading gargenth. Did that newfie have the signature purple tint? Willow squinted hard.  
  
"How long have you had Amy?"  
  
"A few months," Willow answered absently. A nearby lab was looking a little spikier than she'd like.  
  
"And have you noticed that she seems exceptionally bright?"  
  
"Well she's- it's almost like she's a person," Willow stammered quickly. Okay, not a dog. The iguana at table 6 was definitely getting bigger.  
  
The judge patted her hand. "Don't worry, dear, I hear that all the time."


	77. A Heavy Subject

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt is stone.

" _You_ 've eaten too many rabbits," Drusilla scolded the corpse. Spike chuckled.  
  
"'S alright, love, you're the world's best diet plan."  
  
"But has he given me his tummy?" She tried to puzzle out her form in a window. Spike wrapped his arms around her.  
  
"You're as lovely as the day I was turned."  
  
"Sweet," she murmured before... "But are you sure?"  
  
This was a trap. Spike could tell. But Dru was tenacious. He couldn't just distract her with imaginary butterflies. "Eight stone? Nine?"  
  
Dru whimpered and ran. Spike groaned and gave chase. Sire or not, loony or not, vampire or not, underneath Dru was just another bird.


	78. Acrophobia

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt is high.

In her dreams, Dawn is high. (Not like that, Buffy would kill her.)  
  
No, it’s a tall building. She’s scared. She’s never been this scared before, a physical fear battering at her insides, but everything’s clear. She knows what needs to happen. She knows that Mom was right when she said “Someday you’ll be just like your sister.” She’s finally going to be like Buffy.  
  
But Buffy isn’t ready for that yet. She wants Dawn to just be Dawn.  
  
In her dreams, Dawn is high. (And the worst part is that Buffy can’t kill her because Dawn killed her first.)


	79. Fatal Attraction

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt is tease.

She’s sitting there, teasing him without even knowing it.

He imagines her on top of him. He’s not sure what they’re doing, but there’s some kind of touching going on and it’s all good. He rolls her beneath him and he has to hand it to his imagination: he’s kind of a god.

“Xander,” she moans. And then, more urgently, “Xander!”

His head shoots up and his book falls. “Find anything?” Buffy asks.

“Nope,” he answers, voice too high. “Just that I am one sick puppy,” he mutters, diving underneath the table to retrieve his book and hopefully his dignity.


	80. Asylum

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt is escape.

Joyce always enters the ward with a cup of coffee, as if that will protect her.  
  
Today Joyce’s second favorite nurse, Leanne, tells her Buffy is restless, so Joyce stands outside and sucks down her lukewarm coffee, watching through the window as her daughter fights against her restraints.  
  
She hates this place. Every time she’s here, she wants to escape. She wants Buffy to escape from whatever is in her mind.  
  
But she has to go fight with the insurance company, so as the new drug kicks in, she sighs and tosses her cup in the trash and walks away.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Takes place in the Normal Again AR.


	81. Unconventional Methods of Torture

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt is in and out.

“In and out,” Cordelia mumbled, heels clicking steadily. If she slowed, everything would be lost. “Quick and painless.”  
  
She almost stopped at the doors, but she thought of the poor woman crying in Angel’s office, her home and belongings destroyed, and she soldiered on.  
  
A woman with a frightening smile approached her. “Welcome to Bloomingdale’s. Can I help-”  
  
“Shut up. I have no time to spend on myself and I can’t tell you how painful that is. So just listen and fetch, okay?” She didn’t wait for a response before taking out her list. “I need three packs of underwear…”


	82. Make a Difference

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt is lead.

"In conclusion, I would like to have the chance to lead you into a new age." Xander gave a bow to the wild applause of the invisible crowd.  
  
But they weren't imaginary. His father stood in the doorway, a gleefully sarcastic look on his face.  
  
"Running for student council, Al?" he asked, using the nickname that Xander hated. It was why he was a Xander instead of an Alex.  
  
"Yes, sir," he said, although he was really running for the We Hate Cordelia Chase Club.  
  
His dad's false smile disappeared. "Why bother? A bunch of kids can't do anything."  
  
Xander clenched his fists. "Yes, sir."


End file.
